A Research framework for Disciplinary Culture in Higher Education Curriculum

Recently the higher education researchers have focused on cultural views toward higher education studies and caused a new trend of research which investigates academic culture. Disciplinary culture is considered as one of the branches that study culture in higher education according to the interactions between the disciplines, on the one hand, and individuals and context, on the other hand. The study of disciplinary culture is increasingly growing due to the emergence of the topics such as interdisciplinary curricula and internationalization of curricula in higher education. However, no framework has been developed for this type of studies. In addition, considering the complexity of this topic, the lack of a coherent framework could create ignorant researchers. As a result, this study seeks to develop a framework for studying disciplinary culture in higher education. To this aim, the researchers chose mathematics and education, which are respectively among hardpure disciplines and soft-applied ones in the classifications of disciplines. The present study employed grounded theory approach and the data were gathered through cooperative observation, semi-structured interviews, openended questionnaires and content analysis of cultural documents in two disciplines. In the next step, the data were analyzed through coding and patterning methods. The results of data analysis revealed different variables, categories and levels for disciplinary culture in higher education curriculum which explained a framework for disciplinary culture in higher education which could serve as the basis for developing a framework for studying the disciplinary culture in higher education.